Asilomar Conference grounds

The Controller at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Monterrey, California gave notice that he was resigning. Asilomar booked multiple day corporate conferences on its scenic grounds near the Pacific Ocean. Revenues were derived from room rentals, lodging, retail, and food and beverage operations. My boss asked me if I would be willing to go to Monterrey to be the interim Controller until a new Controller was hired. I agreed to travel to Asilomar for what would turn out to be a 3 month assignment.

Upon arrival at Asilomar, the outgoing Controller reviewed the accounting procedures with me and demonstrated my role in reviewing the transactions keyed into the General Ledger system by the two accounting clerks. He also reviewed the month end closing process with me, the California Parks Department reporting requirements, the calculation of the monthly rental payment, the payment of sales and use taxes, and the filing of the quarterly sales and use tax returns.

One clerk completed the Daily Sales Report that summarized the sales and accounts receivable activity for the previous day and keyed the data into the General Ledger system. I reviewed the Daily Sales Report for reasonableness and posted it to the General Ledger system. At the end of the week, the clerk summarized the revenues for the Weekly Operating Report, a weekly profit and loss statement required by the parent company.

The second clerk did the payroll each week and keyed the invoices to be paid into the Accounts Payable system. Prior to keying invoices, I reviewed each one to ensure it had been approved by management. Once satisfied that all was in order, I initialed the invoice. I instructed the clerk to only pay those invoices with my initials on them. The clerk printed a listing of invoices input into the system for my review. Once satisfied each invoice entered into the Accounts Payable system was correct, I posted them to the Accounts Payable subledger. At the end of the week, the clerk entered the payroll and invoices data into the Weekly Operating Report. I reviewed this information, added any accruals for the week, and emailed the report to Corporate.

At month end, the Executive Chef supervised the counting of the Food and Beverage inventory. Upon completion of the inventory, he sent the final inventory listings to me. I reviewed the inventory for reasonableness, i.e. reasonable quantities and unit costs. I plugged the value of each inventory into the respective Product Cost calculation (Food Cost, Liquor Cost and Beer Cost) and made sure the result was reasonable. If any of the costs looked out of line, I discussed the issue with the Executive Chef. We would decide which items to recount, if necessary, and counted them.

Rent paid to the California Park Service was based on a percentage of revenues, subject to a minimum guarantee. I performed the calculations on an Excel spreadsheet. When the calculations were complete, I printed a spreadsheet to review with the General Manager. Upon receiving his written approval, I processed the rent payment.

Estimated Sales and Use taxes were due monthly. I pulled this information from the General Ledger, including self assessed use tax, and processed the electronic funds transfer payment. At the end of the quarter, I completed the Sales and Use Tax return and mailed it to the State.

As part of the month end close process, I printed preliminary Profit and Loss statements (P&L’s) and Balance Sheet. I reviewed the P&L and Balance Sheet accounts to ensure all journal entries had been processed. If a line item on the P&L or the Balance Sheet did not look right, I looked up that account in the General Ledger to see if an entry was missing. Once satisfied that the reports were correct, I issued the final P&L and Balance Sheet.

During my work at Asilomar, I noted an internal control weakness in the cash area. Due to limited staffing, the Accounts Receivable Clerk prepared the bank deposit, including the accounts receivable checks. Posting those checks to the accounts receivable records posed a segregation of duties concern. I changed the procedure to add additional controls that mitigated this internal control weakness. The Administrative Assistant opened the mail and listed the checks each day by account name and amount. Each day, she sent the listing directly to me. I compared this list to the validated deposit slip to ensure all checks had been deposited, and initialed the listing, documenting my review.

When the new Controller was hired, I trained him in the procedures that he was expected to follow. I put together a list of duties, broken down by daily duties, weekly duties, and monthly duties. In this way, the new Controller had a check list that he could follow to ensure everything was completed as required.

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